Amy Bell and Valentina Golfieri

We are delighted to have both been individually selected for Sadler’s Wells Summer University. The first of its kind in the UK, Sadler’s Wells Summer University is a four year open programme studying the art and craft of choreography.

From 15 – 26 August 2011, we were given the opportunity to work with award-winning choreographer and author Jonathan Burrows for a fortnight of intensive talks, lectures, discussions and workshops, alongside 13 other young professionals. With additional input from guest artists and speakers including Liz Lerman, Matteo Fargion, David Hinton and Rudi Laermans the course focused on compositional and choreographic processes, performance and philosophies. It encouraged us to question how dance can be made and what it might communicate to somebody watching. We look forward very much to next year’s installment.

In June 2011 we were invited to create an improvised site-adaptive performance on final year BA students from London Contemporary Dance School. 

The piece was inspired by and performed as part of the Out of this World science fiction exhibition at the British Library, and there was also another opportunity to air to work the nearby St Pancras Church. The piece was a chance for students to cast an ironic eye over the kitsch of 50s and 60s science fiction B-movies.

Sat 9 April 2011 saw a newly extended version of our miniature work Perlas a los Puercos at Greenwich Dance Agency‘s Family Cabaret.

The afternoon was a feast of acts to delight all ages, featuring dance, circus, music and all the best bits of a traditional cabaret (table service, compѐre, great atmosphere). The line up included ENB, Levantes Dance Theatre and the excellent Steve Blake on the fiddle.

Presented as part of the Greenwich Children’s Theatre Festival.

Thanks to Liliya Burdinskaya and all at Bye Bye Ballet we had a great time during our residency in snowy St Petersburg in April 2011.

We began the research for our new duet which culminated in a studio sharing at which we also performed That Was the Time I Stopped. This initial research and the feedback we gained has proved vital as we continue work on the emerging piece. We also enjoyed meeting the other artists using the spaces in the building and the dancers that came to our technique and creative sessions. We hope to come back again and show you the finished piece!

In July we cretaed and performed a new one minute work, Perlas a los Puercos, as part of 60×60 Dance at Stratford Circus, London. 60×60 Dance brings together dance and electronic music in a one-hour performance in which every minute of the hour sees a dance maker and composer collaborate. We were assigned a richly eerie and beautiful soundscape by harpist and composer Anne van Schothorst. 

After its huge success in the US, 60×60 Dance arrived in London this summer for its European debut to celebrate the two-year countdown to London 2012.

“The idea – 60 new dance pieces are performed to 60 new pieces of music, each lasting no more than 60 seconds – is quite mad. But it’s this kind of madness that makes the cultural world go round…”
The New York Times

In June we took That Was the Time I Stopped outside and opened London Graduate Fashion Week at Earl’s Court. The week showcases the very best up and coming fashion designers in the UK and we were delighted to perform the work in such a visually vibrant context. That Was the Time I Stopped was this time performed as part promenade, part installation piece outside the exhibition centre as part of the T-Mobile Big Dance.

Another chance to see our duet!

That Was the Time I Stopped is one of over 50 that will be performed at The Place over the course of a single weekend entitled Something Happening.

The weekend is a showcase for the range and quality of artists that The Place is currently engaged with, and it forms a centrepiece of their 40th birthday celebrations.

The weekend – Sat 15 and Sun 16 May – is divided into five sessions; each session includes a seat for a full length show in the theatre, and the chance to see different performances in studios, specially configured spaces and site-specific locations throughout The Place’s building.

That Was the Time I Stopped is in Session 4, which is on Sunday 16th at 12.00 and 13.00 in Studio 8 (Robert Cohan Studio), at The Place, 17 Duke’s Road, London, WC1H 9PY.

Tickets cost £10 per session, and you can save money by booking for three or more sessions to get a full taste of the range of work that’s on offer.

For full details of the programme for session 4 and to book go to:

http://www.theplace.org.uk/5037/whats-on/something-happening-session-4.html

or call 020 7121 1100.

I hope that you’ll be able to join us– and join in the birthday celebrations!

Amy and Valentina